


Snow Delay

by idmakeitbehave



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: F/M, First Meetings, Fluff, M/M, Meet-Cute, Pillow & Blanket Forts, literally just alllllllll of the fluff, that deserves its own tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 08:13:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26848723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idmakeitbehave/pseuds/idmakeitbehave
Summary: Your flight is delayed due to a freak blizzard and you're trapped in the airport for the next twenty-four hours. Normally, this would be horribly inconvenient, but a fascinating stranger may just change your mind. Anything could happen.
Relationships: Spencer Reid/Reader
Comments: 8
Kudos: 300





	Snow Delay

Of course this would happen.

Leave it to you to pick the day of a freak blizzard to try to fly home. _Of course_ the flight was delayed for twenty-four hours- at least. And by the looks of what was happening outside, you were not getting to a hotel any time soon. Time to settle in. This airport was about to be your home away from home for the foreseeable future. _Excellent_.

Maybe it was actually a good thing that you had that paper to work on. Maybe. It would give you something to do at the very least. Not exactly what you wanted to be doing, but apparently that was the entire theme of the day. You nestled into an empty corner, pulling a blanket around your shoulders and getting to work.

The hours passed by in a blurry kind of daze, a lull falling over the tiny airport. Blissfully you were able to focus on the paper, only stopping for a moment to grab some snacks. But before you knew it, your laptop was dead- with absolutely _zero_ outlets to be found. Today was just going to continue to not be your day, evidently.

You packed up your things, determined to find somewhere to plug your computer in. No way were you taking a zero for this stupid paper. Especially not when you only had a few pages left.

One outlet. You just needed to find one outlet. Easier said than done. Apparently whoever made this rinky dink airport decided that power was _not_ a priority.

After exhausting all other options, you finally found one. Maybe the only one, by the looks of it.

There was a man sitting on the floor next to the outlet, his head buried in a book that he was flipping through too rapidly to actually be reading. There was just no way.

Half of the outlet was occupied by what looked to be the most prehistoric cellphone you had ever seen, but the other half was all yours.

“Can I steal that other outlet?”

Apparently he had _no_ idea that you were standing next to him, because his book nearly flew out of his hand. He nodded at you with wide eyes, pushing his glasses back up to the bridge of his nose. “Y-yeah, of course.”

You plopped down on the floor beside the man, another move that somehow seemed to startle him completely. There was silence between the two of you as you plugged in your laptop, pulling your paper back up.

That same lull fell over the airport, the snow outside blanketing the world in a crisp white. You kept turning away from your work to look out the window at the blizzard. Little did you know, every time you did so, he took the opportunity to steal a glance at you.

You plunked away at your paper for a little while longer, but it was so difficult to concentrate. The silence was somehow much more distracting than any noise could be. Finally you turned to the man beside you. “I’m Y/N, by the way.”

He once again looked startled, but a small smile graced his face. A small, beautiful smile. “I’m Spencer.”

“Hi Spencer.” You grinned back at him. “Where are you going once we finally get out of here?”

“DC.”

Maybe your luck had _finally_ turned around.

“Small world, me too!” you said with a laugh, evoking another lovely smile from Spencer, wider this time. You pulled your blanket out of your bag, draping it over your legs before holding it up in front of him. “Want?”

His eyes went wide as he stared at you. Jesus, you were _killing_ it- scaring this handsome stranger every damn time you spoke.

You barely noticed that he had nodded minutely, still mentally kicking yourself for apparently being awkward as hell. He was still staring at you as you pulled the blanket towards him, giving him the corner which he accepted gratefully. The two of you lapsed into comfortable silence once more, him turning back to his book and you to your paper, although you moved just the slightest bit closer to him to allow the blanket to cover you both. His presence was oddly comforting, despite the fact that you had spoken all of two sentences with him.

“Impossible. Impossible,” you muttered to yourself as you typed. “I need another word for impossible.”

“Impassible, insurmountable, inconceivable, unattain-” Spencer rambled off the words under his breath before cutting himself off, a sheepish look crossing his face. “Sorry, ignore me.”

You gaped at him before shaking your head. “No way. You’re _way_ more helpful than my online thesaurus. Next you’re going to tell me that you’re actually reading that book that fast.”

He just nodded at you, his cheeks turning red as he prepared himself for the same look he always got. The one that confirmed that he was, in fact, a freak. An anomaly.

“No way!” you just repeated. “Jesus, man. That’s incredible.”

Definitely not what he had expected to hear. Spencer smiled at you again, this one a huge, genuine one.

God, if only you could keep that look on his face forever. “Let’s play a game.”

He lifted an eyebrow, still grinning. “A game?”

“It might only be beneficial to me but….be my human thesaurus? _Please_?” you asked with an exaggerated whine. “It’ll make this godforsaken paper less horrible.”

Spencer found himself nodding almost immediately. He couldn’t say no. He didn’t _want_ to say no. Despite the fact that he had known you for all of thirty minutes, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he wanted to keep talking to you. To know you. To really and truly know you. It was an unfamiliar feeling, but not an altogether unpleasant one.

You let out a squeal of enthusiasm, nudging his shoulder with your own. “Spencer, you may actually be my guardian angel.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” he chuckled lightly, somehow still blushing. “What’s your paper on?”

You pursed your lips, glancing down at your computer. “Feminism and The Big Bang Theory.” It almost hurt to admit it out loud, knowing now that you were speaking to an actual genius.

Spencer scrunched his nose, clearly confused by your topic. “I’m not quite sure what feminism has to do with a cosmological model of the observable universe.”

You let out a loud laugh, the noise making Spencer grin once more. It wasn’t unkind, that much he knew. He could see it in your eyes. Even your eyes smiled at him- he was oddly captivated by it, staring back at you.

“Not the actual Big Bang, silly,” you said. “The sitcom?”

Spencer blinked, back to reality as he registered your words. “I don’t know it.”

You honestly weren’t even the least bit surprised.

“It’s a trash show,” you continued. “I’m in a gender and media class, and I picked it to tear apart.”

“That actually sounds fairly entertaining.”

You nodded eagerly. “Oh yeah. It’s a pretty good time.”

Spencer found himself leaning closer to you to see your paper, startled when you turned to look at him. You were suddenly staring at one another, your eyes searching his for a moment before breaking into another wide smile.

“Alright,” you began. “I’m almost done but I need your help.”

“Anything.” He meant it. He didn’t know quite why, but he really, truly meant it.

You continued writing, only pausing to shoot out the next word. “Incompetent?”

Spencer didn’t even hesitate before answering you. “Inadequate, incapable, ineffectual, inefficient, helpless-”

“Yes,” you breathed out. “Awesome.”

The two of you continued like this, chatting back and forth as Spencer supplied you with synonym after synonym. In between your questions, you discussed your paper with him, explaining exactly what you were writing about. He seemed genuinely interested in what you had to say, listening with a rapt smile on his face.

“And….. done!” You closed your laptop with a flourish after hitting submit. “Thank you very much, Spencer.”

“You’re very welcome.”

The rumbling of your stomach soon reminded you that it was well past dinner time and you pulled yourself off the ground. Spencer watched you stand, suddenly completely convinced that you were done speaking to him. That this was it.

Instead- “Have you eaten?”

He shook his head and your eyes lit up. “My treat then,” you said. “I’ll go grab us some overpriced airport food if you watch my stuff.”

Spencer’s eyes followed you as you left the waiting area, his mind still trying to comprehend exactly what was happening. He tried to return to his book, but it was no use. There was no way he was going to be able to concentrate. Despite the unfortunate situation he had found himself in, snowbound in a tiny airport, the day had taken an absolutely unexpected turn. One he could never see coming, but that he was so, so thankful for.

He stared out the window at the swirling snow, lost in thought and only turning away when he heard footsteps approaching. You smiled brightly, several bags in hand as you sat down beside him.

“What’s all this?”

You opened up one of the bags, handing him a paper bag from within. “Not much for selection here. Hope burgers and fries are okay.”

“More than okay.”

“And this,” you continued, opening the larger bag to reveal a blanket and pillows, “is for our blanket fort.”

Spencer blinked at you with wide eyes and it felt like you could see the gears turning in his head. “Blanket fort?”

“I don’t know about you, but I’m not sleeping on these stiff chairs.”

He nodded like he still didn’t quite know what you were talking about before taking a bite of his burger. You settled in beside him, the two of you talking easily as you ate. The blanket was over your legs again, both of you gazing out the window at the snowstorm. Despite the strange circumstances and location, it was pleasant, being nestled up next to this kind man you barely knew and watching the blizzard rage outside.

Hours passed, your eyelids slowly getting heavier as you realized just how tired you were. The unnatural lights of the airport were too bright for how late it was, and you squinted at Spencer. “Blanket fort?”

He still didn’t really understand exactly what you meant by that, but he nodded anyway. You pulled out your blankets, laying one on the floor in between the two aisles of chairs. When you took the larger one and draped it over both sets of chairs so that it was suspended in the air, he finally understood. “We’re in the middle of the airport,” he said bluntly, staring at your little creation.

“So?” you asked like it was the simplest statement, like it was completely reasonable to be creating a blanket fort in an airport surrounded by strangers. To you, it was. “Who cares? It’s not my best work, but it’ll block out the light at least.”

Spencer let out a hum of agreement, still a bit baffled by what you were doing. There was no protocol for this, no rulebook for sleeping in an airport with a random stranger in a goddamn _blanket fort_ of all places.

“I guess technically speaking it’s not _really_ a blanket fort,” you continued, pulling your bag with you and crawling under the suspended blanket. You poked your head out, Spencer chuckling at the sight. “But it’s as close of a knockoff as I can get. You coming?”

He stared at you for an instant, body moving before his mind had time to catch up. Once under the makeshift fort, he was acutely aware of how close to you he was, your body mere centimeters away from his. You grabbed the remaining blanket, pulling it over you before handing it to Spencer. He hesitated before pulling it over himself, and you moved in closer to allow for it to cover both of you. The two of you blinked at one another in the dim lighting, a bright smile on your face as you handed him one of the tiny pillows.

Maybe it was the strange situation the two of you were in, maybe it was the intimacy of being snuggled under this blanket together, but you and Spencer found yourselves talking softly again. You talked about everything from your jobs to your favorite novels, slowly drifting closer to one another.

The night wore on and you pulled the blanket up to your shoulders, letting out a tired sigh. “I’m really glad I met you, Spencer,” you whispered. Your hand made its way to his, holding it tentatively as you studied his reaction.

He simply smiled at you before lacing his fingers with yours. “I’m really glad I met you,” he echoed back.

When you finally drifted off to sleep, your hands still clasped together, Spencer reached his free hand up to your face, brushing the hair from your eyes with a feather-light touch. This. This was beyond anything he could ever expect to happen to him. He almost wished that this night would never end. That it would last forever.

Of course, all good things must come to an end. At least, all nights do.

The first thing Spencer became aware of as he blinked into consciousness were the announcements playing over the loudspeakers. The second thing he became aware of was the weight of something resting on his chest. Or, more accurately, _someone_ resting on his chest. You were snuggled next to him, your head under his chin and your hand still in his.

He didn’t move. He didn’t dare to, for fear that any sudden movement from him would break the spell.

You let out a sigh, nestling closer to him, your leg coming up to rest over his. He almost jumped at the contact, caught off guard once again. Another hour passed like this, Spencer only moving to accommodate your own sleepy movements.

Eventually you woke up, blinking away the sleep with a yawn. You suddenly realized that you had latched onto this near stranger during the night, pulling away from him with a start.

Spencer frowned the tiniest bit, missing the comfort of your arm wrapped around him. “Morning.”

“Morning,” you mumbled. “Sorry, I guess I’m like a koala in my sleep.”

“It’s- it’s fine.” Understatement of the year.

Spencer left to go get coffee, you still trying to wake up as you brushed the knots out of your hair and folded up the blankets. Maybe you should have been embarrassed about waking up nearly on top of him, but for some reason you weren’t. He had just smiled softly at you, the most endearing look on his face. That look was engraved in your mind- you didn’t want to forget it. Ever.

He returned soon, sinking back to the floor. You accepted the coffee with a grin, sighing after the first sip.

“It looks like our flight is back on,” Spencer said softly.

“Yeah?” You turned to look out the window. The snow had stopped falling sometime overnight, the fresh white blanketing the outside world. It was breathtaking.

“Yeah. We board in an hour.”

An hour. Just yesterday, you had wanted nothing more than to get on that plane and head back to your home. Back to your normal, safe life. But now? You just wanted to stay right where you were, talking with Spencer about anything and everything. For as long as you could. It felt ridiculous to even think. You had known him for less than a day, for god's sake, but you didn't even want to imagine walking away him.

Before you knew it, it was time to board and the two of you were making your way to the gate, bags and blankets in hand.

“What’s your seat?” Spencer asked, not ready for this to end. Whatever ‘this’ was.

You pulled out your ticket. “7A. You?”

He was suddenly beaming at you, his eyes sparkling. “7B.”

Your luck had _definitely_ turned around.

“I think this is fate,” you said with a laugh, daring to grab his hand with yours once more, that same endearing blush spreading across his face.

Spencer didn’t believe in fate, had never believed in fate. And yet, here he was.

“I think it is.”


End file.
